Christmas blah
by Deathofme
Summary: Oneshot for Christmas, very much belated. House recieves a gift that's not unexpected, and not so welcome.


**A/N** A little Christmas one-shot, which is funny because it's New Year's already, my how time flies. Attempt to be realistic about the relationship between House/Cam, I don't think things will ever work out between them right now, sad.

Happy holidays, enjoy!

* * *

"…And a bottle of vicodin for me."

House looked at the tiny orange jar, and shook it to see the white pills rattle inside. Wilson was playing with his tennis ball and snorted a laugh at that.

"Some Christmas carol."

"If you want me to be more festive, why don't you tie a red bow around my waist?"

"I wonder who I could give you to."

House glared at Wilson then and the cancer specialist laughed uninhibitedly this time. It was really quite sad, Christmas Eve, and they were still lounging around in House's office after hours.

"You should go home. To your wife."

Wilson was still focused on the tennis ball that arced high into the air and came back down again, hoping to catch it within the grasp of his fingers for the twenty-fifth consecutive time in a row.

"When were you ever concerned about Julie?"

"You married her, you should care."

Wilson lost the ball and sat up straight in his chair. House was looking out his window, at all the snow blowing around outside. They continued on like that for another awkward moment until House looked at Wilson and shrugged.

"What?"

"Did I really hear you say that?"

House shrugged it off and continued to look outside his office window. Wilson wanted to enquire further but decided not to push it. There were so many things you had to tread carefully around his friend. There was another silent moment as they remained in their respective positions when House spoke up again.

"No really, go. You don't need to stay here."

"Greg, it's okay-"

One blue glare and Wilson held up his hands in defeat. He replaced House's tennis ball in it's respective place and gathered up his things to leave.

"Merry Christmas."

"It isn't yet."

House looked out his window, and it was one of those perfect, sad moments. Where the main hero of the program or story or whatever it was, stared out a window, at the falling snow and thought of all the happy or sad memories they had within it.

Except House wasn't seeing anything but snow. Just snow here there and everywhere, it wasn't even that pretty, just…white. He could think of nothing except how cold it must be, and how truly pathetic he must be to be alone on Christmas Eve and see nothing but snow.

"Dr. House?"

Cameron stood by the doorway, knocking tentatively.

"You haven't gone home yet?"

House looked at her, and found that just like the snow, he couldn't really think of anything more than generic things. It was sad, really. Poor, young Cameron, perfect, really, but amounting to nothing more than a minor character in his internal theatre.

You could try, if only you tried, her eyes said as they greeted, but what he said also was that he was past the point of trying, that sometimes that was just time. Nothing more.

"Merry Christmas."

She gently pushed a small package into his hands and he looked at it before glancing back up at her. She smiles, but a dark look passes across her eyes as unspoken things begin to pile up in between them.

"It's just a gift, House."

"It's your heart, and you're asking me to accept it."

He was never forward, unless he was trying to psychologically tear someone apart, and she didn't want to believe he was trying it here, but could see no other reason. She tried to say something back, but the chasm of the unspoken could only force her to meet him on level ground.

"You're never going to get over Stacy, are you?"

It was his turn to be silent.

"You know you're both driving each other to a very painful place. If you could just be a man, you could let her go and suffer alone."

Cameron whirled away from him then, having slipped up. She always found her emotions stumbling into situations like this, she could never handle them with a level head. Damnit. She left the hospital and the rest of her night consisted of driving through snow and curling up to a television full of old movies.

House found his eye and the crease of his mouth folding into an unexpected wince. He wanted to shout after her, that it really was just time, and realized the small package was still in his hands.


End file.
